That would surprise me. It's not as if the other 29 teams are living in caves. We may never get to test this proposition for various reasons, but if Gardy really jerked the kid around without warrant, I don't think everyone in baseball would accept it as a final judgement, especially if they could derive a competitive advantage by doing otherwise. In fact, there are several GM's whose bread-and-butter seems to be identifying players and situations exactly like this.

Like I said, I'm mostly on your side. But time has mostly softened my concern. And Bill Smith seems to be doing an adequate job of patching our holes, so hopefully we won't have to deal with any dramatic positional switches in the near future.

I think there's a big difference between playing a position in the minors and playing in the majors, and especially when a player is trying to go back to it fulltime after a few years of being cycled through several other positions.

As Aaron noted this week, the young Corey Koskie initially struggled to get into the regular lineup because Tom Kelly didn't like his defense, but of course, given time to settle in and improve himself, Koskie worked to become one of the better defensive 3B in the league. Why wasn't Cuddyer given a similar chance to develop at the same position?

I thought I recalled Cuddyer getting a chance to show what he could do from April to August of 2005, but now that I check the game log I see that Glenn Williams started to get regular starts at 3B in late June; in July, the position was usually manned by a utility player. Cuddyer was the regular 3B again in August, but in September he most often played RF. Anyway, that was the extent of his opportunity to show whether he could be an everyday 3rd baseman that year. Gardy gave him 10 weeks before jerking him around, then one more month after he'd been sitting out or playing other positions for 6 weeks, and then he was sent to the OF before the season was up.

It would be one thing if they had a clearly better alternative at the position in mind, but they gave up on him so quickly only to replace him with career minor leaguers like Glenn Williams and Terry Tiffee and utilitymen like Nick Punto and Luis Rodriguez. And then their plan for 2006 was to bring a washed-up Tony Batista back from Japan. I'll never understand that.

The longer Trader Bill Smith is at helm, though, and Cuddyer continues to get more expensive and closer to free agency, the lack of trade interest in him could be seen as a sign that most other ML clubs don't see him as a third baseman either.

It wouldn't surprise me if everyone around baseball agrees that Cuddyer is a RF, not a 3B, since he's now "proven himself" in RF and it's conventional wisdom that "he had his chance" at 3B and failed. Like I said before, Cuddyer probably prefers to stay at a position where everyone praises him for his cannon arm, too. But I don't think that's going to result in a lack of trade interest in him if Smith ever puts him on the market, as long as Cuddyer is an above-average hitter. If Smith wants to shop him around as a 3B, though, he should push Gardy to prove the point by giving Cuddyer another chance at the position next year. Not gonna happen, I know.

I think he already knew the position, having come up through the minors as a 3B.

I wanted him to get a longer shot there, and it would be cool to move him back, but with the "deaf in the left ear" thing, I'm willing to give the Twins brass some benefit of the doubt. I don't think the situation is quite so simple as "one of Gardy's crazy hunches."

It would be interesting if/when Cuddyer hits the market, if any other teams were willing to move him back to third. As someone mentioned above, he'd certainly benefit from the switch to a more premium defensive position. I wonder if he has ever been pursued in trade talks for such a purpose? Some team could get a third baseman at a right-fielder rate, although that rate still may have been prohibitively high under TR. The longer Trader Bill Smith is at helm, though, and Cuddyer continues to get more expensive and closer to free agency, the lack of trade interest in him could be seen as a sign that most other ML clubs don't see him as a third baseman either. About as definitive as the Mitchell Report, but it may be the closest thing to closure we ever get.

But then, I've been suprised before.

Actually, I do love the signing if Billy (antiBeane) Smith can pull the trigger on a couple of decent bats to fill our needs at 3B and CF. Defense at SS is vital, especially at the Dome. It's like having Greg Gagne again except Everett is a better glove. I think we managed to win a few games with GG entrenched in that Short Left Centerfield position.

If we dont add any bats, I will worry about a lineup that includes Everett, Pridie, Buscher/Punto, Punto/Casilla/Harris, and the inconsistency of Monroe and Young.

Mauer, Morneau, Cuddy, Kubel and Young should be able to score us some runs, but you need the other 4-5 guys in the lineup to be able to pick it up when the studs are cold. (Something we failed to do last year)

Michael Cuddyer, career:

As a third baseman: .263/.329/.442
As a right fielder: .275/.352/.452
In 2007, as a RF: .276/.356/.433

There's a little improvement there, but it could also be that he just happened to reach his prime as the Twins moved him to his latest position (he turned 27 in March 2006). He might have posted the same production in 2006-7 if he'd been at 3B, 1B, or DH, too.

I thought we tried Cuddyer at 3B a couple years ago and it wasn't working.

They didn't even give him a full season to learn the position. He had a rough start in 2005, both at the plate and in the field, but he was one of the team's best hitters over the last 5 months of the season and I thought he showed improvement at 3B after the first month or two, as well. By August, however, he'd been benched in favor of Glenn Williams, then Punto/Rodriguez, and returned to the Super Utility role before getting some consideration as a replacement for Rivas at 2B near the end of the season.

Going into the 2006 season, Gardy publicly declared that Cuddyer 'had his chance' but failed as an everyday player; he planned to use Cuddyer as a reserve OF, until Kubel and Ford got off to lousy starts, and then Stewart got hurt. So Cuddyer got one more chance to play every day, and finally made the most of it that year.

I believe Lofton announced his retirement near the end of last season.

I'd like this Everett signing a lot better if the Twins didn't have such a flyball heavy staff, especially with Johan still in the fold. Great analysis Ubes.

This is based on:
Contracts signed on Cot's - Johan (13.25), Nathan (6), Crain (1.7), Reyes (1), Mauer (10.5), Young (0.7), Redmond (0.95), Punto (2.4), Monroe (3.82). (40.32 MM for 9 players)
Everett at 2.8 million (2.8 MM for 1 player)
My own estimate of arb salaries for Morneau ($8MM), Cuddyer ($5.5MM), Kubel ($2.5MM), Rincon ($2.5MM), and Guerrier ($1.75MM) (20.25MM for 5 players). These were quick and dirty estimates; somebody with more time might look into this to get better figures.
League minimum at $500k for Baker, Slowey, Bonser, Liriano, Neshek, Harris, Buscher, Pridie (marked as starting CF for now), Tolbert (backup 3B), and G. Jones (as 5th OF) (5MM for 10 players).

Replacing Buscher at starting 3B and/or Pridie as starting CF (which would knock Tolbert and G. Jones off the roster), would increase the payroll by the contract less the 0.5 million.

Assuming a $75 million payroll for the upcoming season, that leaves about $7.5 million ($6.5 million + cutting Tolbert & Jones) for free agents. Obviously, if Santana gets traded, that frees up an additional $12.75 million as well. If Monroe doesn't last through spring training, there's another $2.5 million or so ($3.82 million less his buyout of about $700k less the $500k to replace him on the roster at league minimum). I would cut Monroe, take my $10 million, and give Mike Cameron $6 million to man CF, and Mike Lamb $4.5 million for 3B, and call it a day.

Cripes, that's two scoops in two days that Seth has had (Tyny and AEv). Next time some newspaper writer disses bloggers, point them to Seth.

The Twins, however, value defense, and Everett likely will be a favorite to win a Gold Glove, an award he never won in the National League.

Given Everett's abilities, and the fact that Twins are almost never charged with errors in the Dome, I'd say Everett should be clearing some space on his mantle.

There are two sorts of players on this list that I think tend to be underrated--players who play defense at an elite level, and players who are good at hitting and fielding, but spectacular at neither.

By this metric, Jason Bartlett's the best all-around SS in the game. That trade keeps getting worse with each new perspective. Considering Juan Uribe's baggage (physical and legal), the Rays did extremely well when they decided not to trade for him and got Bartlett instead.

Interesting that several of these SS are all in the age 25-28 bracket. Forget the turn of the Century Big Three, the golden age of the SS is now.

http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/dialed_in/discussion/defense_over_the_last_twenty_years_part_two/

And RZR at the Hardball Times shows Everett's 2006 was top-rated among SS qualifiers since 2004, and his 2005 season ranked high too (comparable to Tulowitzki's 2007):

RZR at the Hardball Times

In Everett's shortened 2007, he fell behind Vizquel in this column, and tied with Reyes, although even then, he probably would have topped both considering DPs and plays out of zone.

On the defensive side, should "runs per 120 according to UZR" bear any relation to BP's defensive runs over average? I was wondering if there was a place we could look at individual years and see what the "normal" range on this figure was, and if there were any trends for particular players.

I guess I never realized how dominant his defense is? A full 10 runs better than any other player on the whole list? But his offense is worse than Punto's.

I guess I question some of the numbers. The one that jumps out to me is Eckstein versus Punto. Your list has them exactly the same, both on O and D. I can't speak to their D (and the right D number for Punto at SS seems like it would be hard to get given how little time he spent there overall), but on offense, they really aren't that close. Eckstein last 3 years, OPS+:

99, 81, 93.

Punto, same thing:

68, 90, 52.

(Everett: 70, 64, 56. Yikes.)
Why are their projections so similar?